NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 2, 1995

Nolan Richardson

COACH RICHARDSON: You know, right now Darnell has got -- he's playing with kind of a stress fracture on his 4th metatarsal. But when that kid is really healthy and going well, and Lee Wilson, who's come on so strong, those two guys in the lineup give us a different look. They're physical enough to score around the basket. Of course Darnell is very skillful. He can go outside and shoot. Yesterday in the ballgame in a three minute period they were the difference in the basketball game, which gave Corliss enough time to sit, relax, and then come on and be real strong at the end. But that is one of the things that I think that we have an advantage. When you can bring two kids that size, one can go outside, the other one can stay in, and they're both six-ten, six-11, that is to me a luxury. And they're young, a couple of sophomores. I think they're going to be really something in the future.

COACH RICHARDSON: I really don't think when I speak in terms of the respect -- I think the media tries from a national standpoint, tries to do an adequate job. I think sometimes it depends on where you live, who you are coaching for, and what's involved. And I don't think that everything becomes a personal attack. I think there are guys who write, but they're not personal. But I also think there are those who have some personal feelings, so they're not projecting the story or the facts. And let's face it, we're in a high profile business, and in order for papers to be sold I sometimes think some of the writing is incredible. But they've got to sell newspapers. And they look for promotions. It's kind of like coaches, we're trying to win games; they're trying to get the lead story or the great story. And sometimes it's kind of -- sometimes it's kind of off the wall; they just don't really make sense. I realize that I live in an area that I'm covered by all the state papers and all the TV's, and all the everybody. So, you're in a glass house. And that's okay, because that's what it's all about, you've got to live in that. But I'm not too sure that every time something is written it has anything to do with coaching. Now, that's my personal belief. I may be wrong, but still that's my personal belief.

COACH RICHARDSON: Yeah, early in the year. Early in the year we were having a lot of problems -- when we went to UMass, that was the first game of the season, and I couldn't see the problem until after we had to play 11 straight ballgames, and I looked at my schedule and we ended up playing Missouri and Georgetown, Iowa, Cincinnati. I mean, it was game after game during that stretch. What happened was the fact that my schedule was so strong, I could not play my bench to get them prepared. And so when we came out of the December affair, going into January, coming from Hawaii, we played our first game against Ole Miss, and I think they were pretty tired. As a matter of fact I'll never take that trip as a coach again; I'm just now getting over it. It took a lot out of us. But it took more out of the team that did all the playing. So the year before, our schedule was equipped with some games in there that we could get the other kids ready. This year we didn't get them ready. I think we made a conscious effort when the season got under way, our guys when we got beat, after we lost to Ole Miss or Alabama or Mississippi State, we would be with 8 minutes to play within what I call pecking position, that's being in a position to pull away or stay within a position to win the game. But by the time we got to that position, a couple of mistakes were made, we didn't have the confidence to put other kids in to give Corliss and Scotty a break, and we didn't have that guard that we needed. We always had a slice guard, which was Roger Crawford. We didn't get him, we had him but he didn't qualify. So now we're going with two guards and trying to get somebody else ready to play the slice position. So, it caused us a lot of problems until Lee Wilson, now Dillard, who we thought would come back and be ready, but wasn't quite ready. So, finally, I thought as the year went on, we forced ourself to play them regardless of who we were playing. And then it paid off. That's why you can see some of the unusual lineups in the line, because I see them every day in practice, and so you start trusting and believing. And right now I think the confidence of all our kids are there to play when they can.

COACH RICHARDSON: I'm going to answer that question as a coach. Last year, playing Duke, a young man supposedly had a strained knee. His name was Cherokee Parks, he played the entire basketball game, almost, never limped, never did anything. The young man that was sitting here, McDaniel, his back was ridiculous, he took a charge in the Virginia game that was unmerciful. Not once did I mention it to the media. Not once. We tried to get him ready, let's go play. I'm not going to sit here and put in my mind that he is going to be 90 percent or 80 percent or 30 percent. Hell, half my team has been injured. So, to answer your question, he will play. Percentage? I don't know what -- how healthy he'll be, but he'll be there, just like Cherokee Parks was.

COACH RICHARDSON: This year's team would probably lose to last year's team, for one reason. Last year's team didn't have pressure, the kind of pressure. Have you ever played golf? Have you ever tried to play by yourself, not get a whole punch of putts? Have you ever been to the driving range, shot after shot, tee it up and stand around and say let's bet five. Rigor mortis will set in. Pressure is a bugaboo. You just have to learn to deal with it. And our kids last year was free, loose as a goose. This year they've been tight.

COACH RICHARDSON: I tell you, we play a part of every part of a young man's life on the campus. I'm his father, his mother, his brother, his counselor, his psychiatrist. I mean, we're everything. And everybody expects us to be everything, too, so it's something that I guess we have to accept. We've got one -- I was going to say one week, but we've got one more day of basketball left. I'm really glad it's only one day left. We have already played 38 basketball games. Last year we were 31 and 3. We're already through as far as the games are concerned. I've always asked our kids, let's try to improve a little bit each year. This same bunch went 22 ballgames from when they were freshmen and sophomores, they've got 32 so far this year. I just think that with the pressures of winning, with the pressures of trying to repeat, with the pressures of the kids going back to the classroom and competing, I'm glad I'm at the end of my mediocre career.

COACH RICHARDSON: What shot? He made so many shots. His shot? You're talking about the NCAA shot? I don't know how to answer that one. All I can say is Scotty's a better basketball player. He's matured. He's made a lot of game-winning shots. Scotty, I think he gets upset when everybody thinks that that's the only thing that they can remember of him. We, as coaches, have seen him make a lot of big shots for us over the years. And I just, again, he's just like silk, he's very smooth, not blessed with a lot of speed, but very blessed with a gifted intelligence that gets him in a position to do the things he does well. So, I just can say he's a much, much improved basketball player than he was last year.

COACH RICHARDSON: A great basketball game, absolutely great. You couldn't have -- I think one magazine had it picked that way or some -- the guys who pick teams, where they're going to be, how they're going to be, so long as Dick Vitale -- I just don't like him to pick us to win, because whatever he says I just want to do the opposite. So if he says we're going to win, I can't do the opposite. But you're talking about a game that, as you mentioned, the No. 1 team in the country, we're still the defending national champions, I love that. I'd rather be right now the defending national champions than the No. 1 team. Because, see, all we've got to do, one more game. We're still undefeated in NCAA play in the last two years. And they've got to dethrone us. What other matchup could you have any better than that? It's a tremendous -- it's come together maybe as to me as one of the top builtup classics this country will see in decades.

COACH RICHARDSON: Winning. Beck plays with his heart, Pressey played with his heart. Paul and Beck are the only two guys that I have seen around my programs that don't have to score to beat you. A lot of guys have to score to win. But they do other things to make others so much better. And they are willing to sacrifice their bodies. If a train was to be driving down the track and Beck thought that he could win by standing and taking the charge, he'd probably take the charge. That's putting it really strong. But this young man sacrifices his body for victory. You see, I've said this many times, and it's in our dressing room, there's those who play to play, and there's those of us who play to win. You see, you could ask the question, how do you play to play? Well, it's easy to play to play; you get out and play. You shoot and look at the stats. And then you've got guys that go out to play to win. They don't care about stats; all they want to do is look at that final stat, is it a W or is it a L? And what we do in between, has nothing to do with it except let's win. That's how I characterize it.

COACH RICHARDSON: Beck has got some asthma, and when he doesn't have to come to something like this -- he won't work out today, either. He'll come shoot some free throws.

COACH RICHARDSON: It's been all of his life.

COACH RICHARDSON: Yeah.

COACH RICHARDSON: I don't personally know Coach Wooden. But I copied a lot of things that Coach Wooden did as a basketball coach. You see, I thought the greatest gift that Coach Wooden had, I know some of his players back in my day, is that he was a master at solving problems. You see, I always considered Coach Wooden as a coach that got the maximum without strings attached to his players. You see, the other night I was telling them about I met and I know personally Mr. Iba. And one day we were discussing, I asked Mr. Iba if you were to coach in today's days, would you play the same. And his remark to me was, Nolan, are you kidding me? You've got five kids that can shoot and you've got five sitting on the bench ready to shoot. Back in our day we only had maybe one. He says they take the ball and they spin around and they turn left and I didn't see that at all. He says, they had a play they just throw it up in the air, I think they call it the oopy-doopy, I said, no, that's the alley-oop. They do all that doopy stuff he said. I said yes, sir. He said, you know, what, Johnny was smarter than we were. I said, what do you mean by that, Coach? He says, Johnny recruited. John, I went out and recruited. We thought we could out-execute Johnny, but Johnny was smarter, he went out and recruited and just beat us up. You see, I think it's important when you know what you need to do, you don't have to be like everyone. And he was totally different during his era. He pressed, he fast broke. One time I remember as a high school coach a guy was criticizing because he had Lou Alcindor guarding the ball out-of-bounds, the coach said they've got that big 7 footer guarding that ball out-of-bounds. But that's what these guys were taught. And I don't think he ever did what everybody else was taught. And that's why I thought, wow, this guy here solves problems; he puts people in the right places. Coaching is about solving. Coaching to me is about making kids make good decisions. And I think that's what he taught. I think he taught great decision-making. And then he's got who's who in the NBA. So, that's his recruiting.

COACH RICHARDSON: At the next level? All I said is that I have to evaluate, I would have to evaluate at the end of this year what I want to do. In other words, I would not rule it out. I'm not looking for a job. I'm not saying I'll go for the NBA, but I will listen, because I owe that to myself and my family.

COACH RICHARDSON: That's the ultimate. That's the greatest compliment. Because I haven't figured it out. I like that. You know, that's why I'm saying, you can pick up the tape, and I can show you a game and sit there and say, wow, they've got a 2, 2, 1, and this guy is trapping here, and this guy rotates here when he goes there, but we try to teach decisions, opportunity. Is there a possibility of a trap there? Yes. Take it. So, now you work on trapping, and I don't care how many hours you sit up and study the tapes of a Razorback basketball game, you're not going to know how to defend the traps that we put on you. They may come, they may not come. It depends on the kid. He may wake up that day and he's greedy, greedy, and the next day he may not be as greedy. Isn't that weird? I like that. Predictability is something this basketball team and old Nolan will never want to be. I get a big kick out of when they say, you know, they gamble a lot. We do. They give you a lot of good looks. We do. But all those good looks ain't good, and some of times when we gamble, we win. And you know why? Because my percentage is 70, almost 76 percent. So, it's unorthodox. I was talking to Dean, he said it's hard to play you. I said, I know it. That's why I did not -- I'm not studying any of their films. I'm going to look at some of it in a few minutes for about ten minutes. Then I'm going to do something else. You know why? Because when I study film, I study my team, nothing but. So, when I go to practice I can say, you didn't do this, and you didn't do that. I don't worry about, hey, they don't do this. I don't care about what they're going to do, you just do this, and we'll stop them doing that. That's me. I'm more involved with what I do with my basketball team as opposed to what you're doing. You don't bother me. I don't watch tapes that way. My assistants do. They'll come and say, you know, they do that. And I'll say, they do? I remember I got a new assistant. He wanted to coach my scouting team, this team, run with this team. I've been here all my life. I've been here four years, they don't know that offense, how are they going to learn that offense in one day? And they say, you know, where I'm from we used to do it that way. That's where you're from. Here you get on this page. Let's teach our kids what we know best, and then we can deal with it. All I want to know is who can score? Are they going to break us? Do they get back slow? Are they vulnerable to the pressure? Do they have a guard that can handle the ball? So we may pull some of that off. That's all I need to know. We know that the young man -- he's got the ball on a string, that's what we call putting it on a string, so you ain't going to take many from him. But what happens if you keep him from the ball a lot of the times? Can the other kids make decisions? And that's what I was trying to say. Our basketball is to make teams make decisions, not coaches making the decisions for them, but make them make the decision. It makes a difference, makes a big difference in the game.

COACH RICHARDSON: Well, I want to do some games, I want to be like Digger, but I don't want to be fired before I get to do this. And I think I want to bring something different to the game. I want to be able to talk about a team without coaching the team. I think the average fan can get a better picture of what I'd like to tell them about the game as opposed to the obvious that you see all the time, you hear the same words over and over. I'd like to do some of that. And I will do some of that. But other than that, I really don't want to do very much of anything when I retire. I'm 53 years old now. Like I said, I've been 31 years, I don't want to chase these kids at 60. That doesn't mean I've got 7 years left in me. I hope that I've got three to four. When I lose the desire that I have today of getting after it -- see, because when I practice I get on the floor and I do a lot of work, too. And some days I may not feel like I can continue to do that. And then I think I'm going to step aside. Because my voice has a lot to do with how we play. And my demeanor has a lot to do with how we play. And I know that. See, when I'm -- when I go to practices and watch high school coaches that I try to work with, they sit over like this, see. And I can't sit there. And everybody calls them very intelligent because their kids -- I'm involved in the middle of the floor half the time. Sometimes when I go home, I've had a workout because I've been out there with them. And I enjoy it that way. And when I stop doing those things and reach that age where you can't get out there and get in and mix it up a little bit and have some fun and use some dummies and bump them every now and then, then I think I'm ready to say, hey, that's enough. The only guy I hate to bump is Corliss, because he hurts me. He just stands beside me and the air that comes off of him hurts me. But the rest of them, I just wear them out.

COACH RICHARDSON: You know, I do that every day. Every time I drive down the street I'm saying, now, if I can just get to the Sweet 16, I've done a hell of a job. And as soon as I get there, I say, if I can just get to the 8, Elite 8, I've got it made. And then as soon as that's over, Final Four. And now I've got to win this championship. Now, this is what I'm going to say when I win it -- you see, I think visualization is very good, as a coach, hey, I visualize winning the championship, cutting down the net. If it don't happen, it doesn't happen, but it wasn't because I wasn't dreaming about this. I tell everybody, always dream, as long as you keep your feet on the ground and go forward. And that's what my team is doing right now. We're going to win. I'm not going to walk away from here -- when you ask me how do you feel about your basketball team. Unorthodox. I'm not the same coach as everybody else. If the game is called this way, and if the free throws come in and if -- I don't know that. And that's what makes me the way I feel good about me. Because I don't mind telling you we're coming out here tomorrow to win the National Championship. When I walk out of this room and walk up on that court, that's exactly how I'm going to feel. And I'm going to ask the good Lord, the only day I'm going to live, today, I'm going to give it all I've got. And if he brings me back, that's the same thing I'm going to say, I'm back. We're back. I'm going to be better than I was yesterday. And I usually charge a lot of money for that speech.

COACH RICHARDSON: No, I really don't know if the president will show, but I wouldn't bet on it, either. He likes basketball; he likes the Hogs. He attended the George Washington game, I believe. He's attended the Georgetown games. He likes basketball; he really likes it. As a governor he liked it. And I'm glad being president didn't shy him away -- basketball is a great game. He might show up.

COACH RICHARDSON: I think the thing that coach -- that I enjoyed about him is to try to stay in an uptempo mode. I don't think we do the same things, basically. I don't think he gambled like I do as much. I think they did. In those days the press was something that a lot of the coaches back in those days didn't quite understand. And over the years everybody has developed a press breaker, how to break the press. So, we went from trying to have a team learn how to go in practice to break the press, to a chaotic situation, where you've got to make decisions to break the press. It makes a big difference. So, I try to take some of his theories and philosophy and then add what I think about the game and go from there. You know, basketball to me is a very simple game, and John I think feels the same way. The team that scores the most is going to win. Or the team that stops the other team from scoring is going to win. Some coaches approach it from one way, some coaches approach it another way. I approach it both ways. I'll score you and stop you.

COACH RICHARDSON: I've talked to Coach Wooden several years ago at Final Fours. That's the only time you would see him. I don't even think Coach Wooden even comes to Final Fours anymore. I was understanding Jim was saying he might come to this ballgame. But I'm saying 8, 10 years ago, seven or eight years ago I saw him in a hotel and visited with him, not for very long, because his time is very, very limited, because everybody wants to talk to him.

COACH RICHARDSON: Let me tell you something. I tell you -- I see teams playing more like us today than I've ever seen. But they may call it uptempo, they give it a pretty name, but I see that happening right now. I see it in high schools. It's there. When you say do they think better of me, I think yes. I think once you're gone, I think everybody thinks better of you, isn't that amazing? When you're on the Earth nobody cares very much. But when you leave, all of a sudden you're some great guy. But that's the way it is. It's just like you leave Arkansas, you go somewhere else, and they have a few down here, and every article would say when we had Nolan Richardson it was the greatest basketball coach in the world. That's the way it goes, it's always going to be that way. That's why I'm only here temporarily, knowing that eventually I've got to go. I've got to go from coaching, and I've got to go from living. And I understand that. And so right now I don't give a hell. To get my point across, that's all. Because after I'm gone it don't matter anyway. But right now I've got to do the best job I can do, and, as you said, and as I'm saying, in the future you're going to see some gambling and scrambling, yes, because it's coming already, it's coming.

COACH RICHARDSON: Yes, and the reason those words -- he used those kinds of words is because that's what's used. When I first got to Arkansas the funny part about it is when I left Tulsa University I went to a program that didn't win basketball games, and the first year we won 26 and 6 or 7 in my first year as a major college coach. Totally different than anything they see. But the city embraced that. They never saw a winner, so they embraced it. They loved it, it was an exciting brand of basketball, it was basketball at its best. And for five years we won over 119 basketball games, went from averaging of 2000 fans, our seating capacity was 8500. We sold out every ballgame. And then I took over at Arkansas. And that's when all the raggedy started. You see, because I was following a ghost or a legend who walked it down, was successful. And here comes this black man, who's playing playground basketball -- playground basketball, that's what I was called. Playground basketball or niggerball or ratball or dogball. That's what happened. It was because they didn't understand what I was trying to accomplish with the style that I had already played and been successful with. I understood that. And it took time to put it in place. And it took time to bury the ghost. Now, I can leave tomorrow and you can bring back a person that will walk it down. They'll hang him in effigy and run him out of town. Because you have to get out the old diehard walker downs, and get in young ones. I pass them now, and they say let it fly, baby. It's an entertaining sport. UCLA did it. But you see, that's why it became ragged, unorthodox, that's what happened. And so we just took and say, let's play that way, that's who we are. You're playing for a coach that don't put strings on you, that you work from within a system, that's the hardest basketball the coach, is what I coach. The easiest basketball, I played for Haskins, and when I used to coach in high school, I had games that were 5 and 6 at halftime, 9 to 12. Everybody said he's going to be a great coach. I said why? Look at the defense you guys play. 31-33. And I would say to myself, I held the ball and they held the ball. How can you score points with both teams holding the ball? I passed it, looked good. The other team they passed it and looked good. And my God, this guy is good. 31-33. Then I finally got me some athletes, and I said, to hell with this, we're going to rip and run. It's like the big fellow that gripped the golf club, grip it and rip it. We started winning the games we should have been winning back then, we were winning by 30 now. My old grandmother told me if you ever get an ant and he's by you, get a sledgehammer and knock him out. So, that's the same way in the game. If you've got a chance to put somebody away, it's so beautiful. I look at that now, and I can say I can remember, I coached that way. Thank God that the good Lord said, hey, you better move on to something else, and I'm glad I did. I'm glad I'm totally different.

COACH RICHARDSON: No, I think Corliss -- Corliss wanted so much to be the best player in the country. I think that's added pressure that -- you see, Corliss lost a whole summer. He got his thumb broke in the last game of the season last year against Duke. He played 9 minutes with a broken thumb. Two or three days later he's got a cast on, the entire summer. He never played basketball in the summer. For the first time in his life the kid didn't play basketball. And that's hard. And so now when he takes it off, basketball is starting, and he's trying to make up everything he missed in the summer. He's gained weight, he's not as strong, because he hadn't been on it. And so he's working and working. And all this is -- I've got a chance to be the best. And that's pressure. And then a few articles come out that we've got around here, how terrible he is. And he's not the same as he was last year, and all that kind of crap. We've got some of those guys sitting back here and writing everything. That's why I say the analysts, some of the guys that do the writing, they have no clue about an athlete. They could have said, Corliss, what's the difference in your game today? And he could have said, well, I didn't play for three months. And unless you're Michael Jordan, and how many of us got Michael Jordans? You see, we don't research anything, we just write. That's all, we just write. If it don't look good, write it. Do a little research, you'll find out, hey, you might be missing something. That's the reason. And he's not bored, he wanted to be the best, and he had a bad game the first game against UMass, and it haunted him. I don't think the media responded back to him, but he's had great games. His stats is as good as anybody's in the country. And look where he's got his team. Look where he's got his team, in the final game, once again. And he's only a junior.

COACH RICHARDSON: I don't think either way. I don't think that has anything to do with the game. You see, the game is played by individuals on the floor, five against five. The president in the stand, once the ball is thrown up, they don't care who's in the gym. And if they did, it would be terrible for a kid to be playing because of somebody being in the gym, because we're trying to create an interest that you come out and play as hard as you can, if no one is in the gym. So, I don't think it has an effect on UCLA or the President having any effect on how well we would play, not -- none whatsoever. It's just nice for them to be here. And for the fans. I think it's more for the fans than anybody else. I don't think it's the players. The players have a game to play. The players are all trying to win their place in history. These men have already put themselves in history, don't forget that.